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In March 2018, I gave two presentations on behalf of the World Bank / UNODC StAR Initiative in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the use of civil (or “non-conviction-based”) asset forfeiture in international cases involving money laundering, fraud, kleptocracy and other offenses. The first presentation sets forth a series of examples of cases in which non-conviction-based […]

This paper reviews recent examples of sophisticated money laundering operations involving financial institutions in Eurasia – including Russia and Moldova – and the resulting flow of licit and illicit capital from that part of the world to the UK, the US, and other Western countries. Relying on materials from publicly-available sources, it uses several case […]

I had the opportunity to make three presentations at the 35th International Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College, Cambridge in September 2017. The following links are to the lecture notes and PowerPoint slides for each presentation. The Prevezon-Magnitsky Case: Using Civil Forfeiture to Recover the Proceeds of Russian Organized Crime Prevezon-Magnitsky PowerPoint The […]

The following article was published in KYC360.com on Nov. 30, 2017. It is reprinted with permission from the Money Laundering and Forfeiture Digest. Subscriptions to the Digest are available on the Subscriptions page of www.assetforfeiturelaw.us. LUXURY WATCH DEALER IN TROUBLE OVER BLACK MARKET PESO EXCHANGE Stefan Cassella of Asset Forfeiture Law, LLC looks at the case of a US-based […]

Michael Zeldin and I have published this article on the money laundering charges in the Manafort indictment on the CNN.com website. It discusses the domestic and international money laundering theories in the conspiracy count and the types of evidence that would be needed to sustain the charges. Manafort article

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed an indictment charging Paul Manafort and Richard Gates with various offenses including a money laundering conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1956(h). The conspiracy charge alleges that the defendants conspired to commit international promotion money laundering (1956(a)(2)(A)) with the intent to promote a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration […]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum on October 16, 2017, directing Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to create within the DAG’s Office a new position of Director of Asset Forfeiture Accountability. According to the memo, the Director will be responsible for developing recommendations for how the resources and activities of the Department’s asset forfeiture program […]

Stef Cassella gave a presentation on the importance of civil forfeiture as a law enforcement tool at the Convention of South American Public Prosecutors and Attorneys General in Lima, Peru on October 3, 2017. The presentation describes civil forfeiture procedure in the United States, lists the ten most-often cited reasons why civil forfeiture is chosen […]

In United States v. Lo, the Ninth Circuit joined all others in holding that a criminal forfeiture order may take the form of a personal money judgment and is not limited to property derived from the offense that the defendant still has in his possession at the time he is sentenced. In its Opposition to the Petition […]

Stef Cassella and Michael Zeldin have written an article, published on the CNN website, on the role that shell companies have played in international money laundering cases, including Prevezon/Magnitsky and the funneling of money to North Korea. The article also lists the reasons why the use of shell companies may be one focus of Robert […]